1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to food containers and, in particular, a foldable one piece box for packaging relatively flat food products such as pizza pies and the like The invention further relates to a container particularly suited for storing and/or reheating leftovers.
2. Description of the Related art
Cartons for packaging flat food products such as tarts, cakes, and pies are well known and are provided in a number of shapes and sizes. Typically, flat food product cartons are formed from a single blank which is cut and scored so that it can be folded to define a three dimensional container. Many cartons are cut and scored so as to define a substantially square carton which is sized to accommodate the entire product, for example an entire pizza pie having a particular diameter. Other cartons, which are formed particularly for round food products such as pizza pies, are octagonal in shape so as to closely approximate the shape of the food product to thereby minimize displacement during transport and to provide corners having improved crush resistance. Such an octagonal carton is disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,534.
Rectangular and octagonal cartons of the type described above are most commonly used by home delivery pizza services and restaurants which offer carry-out services. Such businesses and are enjoying ever increasing popularity and thus there has been an increased desire to provide boxes or cartons which better serve the needs of the home delivery or carry-out customer.
As noted above, food cartons such as pizza boxes are necessarily configured so as to accommodate an entire, generally large size, product such as an entire pizza pie. However, an entire pie, even a pizza pie, is not ordinarily consumed in -one sitting. The consumer must then store the "leftovers" in the refrigerator for later consumption. Because the original, large size box is no longer required for the relatively small remaining portion of the pizza pie, and because the full size box will occupy a great deal of valuable space in the refrigerator, typically the leftover pizza pie is wrapped in plastic wrap or aluminum foil and then stored in the refrigerator.
A further disadvantage of full size pizza boxes is that they typically can not be received within a microwave oven. Likewise, plastic wrap and aluminum foil are inappropriate containers for microwave heating. Therefore, typically a plate must be dirtied when reheating pizza leftovers.
Yet another problem with conventional boxes is that, even if they are of a size which can be accommodated in a microwave oven, when a product such as a pizza pie is heated in a microwave oven, the crust will become soft and chewy.